What are transfer batches?
Every bank posting is a transfer batch: the downloaded file and the lines in it. What an open batch holds is not posted again until a payment covers it, the line is marked as did not go through, or the batch is cancelled.
A batch is made with the Post to bank button on the invoice list. The Finance → Transfer batches page shows every posting: the file (downloadable again) and the lines with the payee and the exact amount as they went into the file.
Statuses:
- Generated – the file exists but nobody said it reached the bank. Download it, import it into your online banking and, once submitted, mark it Sent to the bank. Until then the batch can be discarded.
- Sent – it went to the bank. Once the bank executed it, Went through (per line or all at once) records a payment on the invoice on the given day (today by default); for a cancellation line it records a refund. Match the bank statement line that arrives later to it rather than recording it as new. A line can be marked as did not go through, with a reason, until it has been recorded as went through – if it has, remove that payment from the invoice first. The whole batch can be cancelled with a reason.
- Completed – payments recorded since the batch cover every line. A completed batch cannot be cancelled.
- Not executed – sent, but none of its lines went through; it holds nothing, and its file can no longer be downloaded.
- Cancelled – the batch no longer holds anything, and its file cannot be downloaded.
Against paying twice: what a line of an open batch still holds is left out of the next posting. If the whole invoice is in a batch, posting says so and it can be skipped; if only a part, only the rest goes. Before cancelling a sent batch, check your online banking that the bank has not executed it – otherwise the amount becomes postable again.
Planned instalments: if the invoice has two or more open planned instalments, posting asks whether to transfer the next instalment only or everything owed.
Planned cash flow: when you mark the batch sent, the invoices' planned payments move to that day, so the cash-flow forecast expects the money then. If only the next instalment went, only its date changes. A batch discarded unsent leaves the plan alone. If a line does not go through, the plan stays and the invoice shows as overdue.
Whether a line was paid is not stored; it is read off the payments recorded on the invoice since the batch (statement matching or a hand-entered payment), so it cannot go stale. A badge on the invoice page shows when a batch still holds part of it. Viewing the page requires access to the Billing module; handling batches requires its manage right.